Virginia Commonwealth, seeded 11th in the Southwest region and needing an extra victory in the First Four, pulled off its biggest upset yet Sunday, beating top-seeded Kansas 71-61 in the regional final.

In the day's second game, Kentucky held off North Carolina 76-69 to win the East region.

VCU will play Southeast champion Butler in Saturday's national semifinals, while Kentucky will take on West champ Connecticut.

The Southwest final was the last in a series of shocking results that left three double-digit seeds in the region semis. Kansas scored the first six points Sunday before VCU went on a 20-4 run to take control of the game. The Rams eventually stretched the margin to 39-21 before settling for a 41-27 halftime lead.

Kansas steadily cut into the lead in the second half, until VCU point guard Joey Rodriguez found a cutting Bradford Burgess for a layup with 1:53 remaining which puts the Rams up 65-57.

“Once again we felt like nobody really thought we could win going into the game,” VCU coach Shaka Smart said in the postgame press conference. “But these guys believed we could win. They knew we could win. And we talked before the game about how nobody else really matters, what they think.”

Some of the pregame talk was of the trash variety. Rodriguez told reporters that a Kansas player, either Markieff or Marcus Morris, told him and Rams teammate Brandon Rozell that the Jayhawks were about to take them out.

“It was the Morris twins—one of them, I don’t know which one it was—when we were at the captains,” Rodriguez said. “He said, ‘Y’all had a great run, but it’s about to come to an end.’ That’s all he said. Throughout the game he was cool. No hard feelings. .. Not anymore.”

In Newark, N.J., Kentucky had to fend off a rally from North Carolina to earn its trip to the Final Four. The Wildcats saw a nine-point second-half advantage vanish with 3:18 to play, but Brandon Knight put UK up for good by hitting a tie-breaking 3-pointer with 2:50 remaining.

“That shot Brandon hit, I still picture it in my mind,” North Carolina center Tyler Zeller said. “I think Dexter (Strickland) was guarding him, had a hand in his face. It was a very tough shot and he knocked it down. Dex did a great job all night shadowing him, chasing him around. And I mean, he still made shots.”

Knight finished with a game-high 22 points.

North Carolina was hampered by foul trouble. Freshman forward John Henson (four points, nine rebounds) was whistled for his fourth personal early in the second half.

“It hurts, you feel like you let the team down,” Henson said. “You couldn’t do all you can do to help. That’s the worst feeling.”

The Wildcats, the No. 4 seed in the East, head to Houston after beating the top two seeds, Ohio State and North Carolina, in the regionals.

“When I saw the board, the seedings—yeah, I’m a little bit surprised we’re here,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “But not because of how my team was playing. I just though the path to get here would be so ridiculous, that we would have to play out of our minds, or people would have to get knocked off.”

Center Josh Harrellson (12 points, eight rebounds) sounded like a VCU player when he spoke of a perceived lack of respect toward the Wildcats.

“A lot of people doubted us this year,” Harrellson said. “A lot of people didn’t think we’d be the team we are.”

Butler and VCU will be the first Final Four game on Saturday, beginning at 6:09 p.m. ET in Houston. Kentucky-UConn will tip 40 minutes after the end of the opener.